COLUMBIA, Mo. — Today 78 percent of Missouri’s electricity comes from coal. Replace coal and other fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy, and Missouri could be powered by wind, solar farms and solar panels mounted on top of homes and businesses. A small percentage of power could include using Missouri’s existing dams. And all this…

Thirty years ago, an explosion ripped through a Soviet nuclear power plant, killing 31 workers and releasing a plume of radioactive fallout that drifted over vast swaths of the continent. Five years ago, a wall of water slammed into a Japanese nuclear power plant, triggering equipment failures and three nuclear meltdowns. As the world reflects on…

Many women will have ovarian cysts, and they’re usually just a few centimeters long. Christina Rees had two that were the size of cantaloupes. As a girl, Rees was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, a chronic endocrine disorder where multiple cysts form on the ovaries. Symptoms of PCOS include weight gain, acne, excess hair growth…

Katherine Hambrick is a Science and Agricultural Convergence- Journalism student at the University of Missouri. Her focus on environmental science and climate issue stories, though she enjoys all science and agricultural topics. Katherine also loves using emerging technologies to tell scientific stories believes that these new mediums are the future of science journalism. Katherine grew…

Marlee Ellison is a junior at the University of Missouri in Columbia studying arts and culture magazine journalism. She is a current music blogger at Vox Magazine and a former reporter for the Columbia Missourian. She’s specifically interested in nutrition and food science in relation to income inequality and America’s obesity crisis. She wonders what…

Kelsi Anderson is a student reporter for Unearthed magazine, who is taking Science, Health and Environmental writing in Spring 2016. She also reports for the Missourian and writes for the MU College of Engineering’s communications office. Kelsi loves everything STEM-related and fancies herself an amateur linguist. In her spare time you can find her reading…